In the News

Several weeks ago, a mother killed her two teenagers because they were “mouthy”. At first reading, this account may seem to you that the mother just simply went nuts. However, if you put this into a context of the daily aggravations people can face in their daily lives, you can begin to see how such a thing could occur.

Let’s suppose this mother just received word that she was being laid off; her husband phoned her from work to say that he too was being laid off. Then her best friend, to who she had loaned a considerable amount of money, E-mailed her to say, “Times are really tough for us financially and so I am not going to be able to pay you back. Sorry, Gen.”

Now this woman is at home attempting do some laundry before preparing dinner and her washing machine goes on the fritz. Next, her teenagers arrive home telling this woman that they want to spend Spring Vacation inFort Lauderdale. The mother explains, “We can’t afford that. Both your Dad and I have been laid off. We’re going to have a tough time just feeding ourselves.” The kids start giving her an argument. “Ah gee, mom, everyone’s going. You’re not being fair. Just because things are rough for you doesn’t mean you should make things tough for us.” That’s when the woman just lost it.

My point is, for normal people, uncontrollable rage doesn’t just happen out of the blue. There are always a lot of “events” that lead up to it. The concept of the straw that broke the camel’s back is extremely valid when looking for an explanation to such occurrences. Or, as has been discussed in previous postings, the pressure cooker simply explodes.